Our Round-the-World adventure

[sg1]

On our recent trips through South East Asia we liked Laos the most. It is still very relaxed, friendly and has excellent food and cultural attractions. A little like Thailand used to be in the 80s and early 90s when I spent a lot of time there. Thailand has changed and not for the better.

 

[ghostdancer]

Laos - Part 1

Spending a night in the tallest tree house in the world in Nam Kan National Park

Border crossing from China to Laos, Chinese gate

Our initial entry into Laos did not feel much different from China, we entered at Boten which is a Chinese built modern town right over the border in Laos. The architecture, the economy and the food were all still very Chinese. The town was alive at night with large scale gambling casinos and nightclubs. We heard rumors of an active red light district but chose not to explore it.

Our two week, 2 ,140km route through Laos. Also shown, an unplanned route through Cambodia (more on that later)

As with many countries in South East Asia, Laos has a complicated relationship with China. It shares a communist values-based government, and accepts infrastructure investment, but that investment often comes with strings attached. China is now the largest investor in Laos and funds are focused on mining, electrical and transportation projects which benefit and are largely controlled by the Chinese. The people of Laos welcome new economic opportunity but also fear losing their national identity and freedom to their powerful neighbor.

But as soon as we left Boten and hit the road the next day everything changed. As we left the border with China, the roads deteriorated and the scenery became more interesting. We welcomed the cultural shift from the modern cities of Yunnan to the small mountain villages of Laos.

We did not know much about Laos before we arrived. It is shadowed as a tourism destination by its more well known neighbors - Vietnam and Thailand - but has a growing tourism sector. We had spent some time in Cambodia a few years ago so had some familiarity with the South East Asian culture, but Laos had a rhythm all its own. The poorest country in the region, Laos’s economy is largely based in agriculture but in a familiar story worldwide, young people are vacating the rural villages seeking job opportunities in the bigger cities or abroad. It was a common site to see fields filled with older people working hard in the heat of the day, growing rice, coffee, bananas and casava. One young man we spoke with explained that the overriding goal of most families is to have enough rice fields to be able to plant them for food for the family for the year. Typically young people return to help with the annual planting.

The people were welcoming but generally more reserved and introverted - we were not surrounded by curious people as we had been in India which was a bit of a welcome relief. It also meant that when we wild camped people left us to ourselves, maybe slowing down as they passed by to see what we were but never stopping. Courtesy is deeply embedded in South East Asian culture, we quickly learned the local greeting in Laotian (sabaidi) always spoken with hands in prayer position and a quick nod or bow. All over the world we have noticed that if you greet people in their local language you quickly earn a huge smile and a return greeting - sometimes accompanied with a little laugh if your pronunciation is a off. But we always try.

Typical mountain village architecture - houses and food storage on stilts to protect from flooding and rodents.

Our first planned adventure was an investment but was well worth it. As full time travelers we choose carefully what we pay tourist dollars for but the Gibbon Experience felt like a lifetime opportunity and supporting a good cause. Located in Nam Kan National Park, the organization has built a series of tree houses in the jungle accessible by zip line. Proceeds from the $200 per person two day, one night experience go to preservation efforts in the park and to support the local villages in developing alternatives to burning the jungle to create room for grazing and agricultural lands.

The sun goes down on the Mekong River in sleepy Ban Houayxay

We made our way to the village of Houayxay where the Gibbon Experience is located, arranged to leave our truck at their office, and met up with our guides, Enjoy and Kiew to set off hiking in the jungle.

Gearing up for the first zip line of the day - 12km of zip lines in all

Visiting the largest tree in the area - a sacred site for local villages

We arrived at our beautiful shelter for the night

That view . . .

Next morning we paid a visit to the kitchen where the women cooked for us

Zip line into tree house

Hiking back out through the bamboo forest

Then we are back on the road - we are just skirting the beginning of the monsoon season so things are starting to get muddy but not bad yet

Tucked into the jungle for the night, we loved the wild camping but struggled with the night long heat and humidity. We were putting our little USB fans to use (we have two SkyGenius clip on mini fans we attach to the camper right by our heads at night - a live saver)

We appreciated the rare bits of pavement - usually through the villages

A common site that hurt Andy’s forester heart. Large swaths of jungle were being burned to convert the land to agricultural use. We understand that people need to eat so it is a complicated issue, but it still made Andy sad.

Our next main stop was the charming city of Luang Prabang on the Mekong River. Its location meant it had been a center of Laos civilization for millennia. The city was literally covered in ancient Buddhist temples - or wats. Although it was a bit of culture shock to see all the fellow tourists roaming the streets, we did take advantage of the restaurant scene to have our first real french bread and pizza for a month -which we did not even realize how much we had been missing.

Ancient Buddhist wat in Luang Prabang

Driving along the Mekong with motorcycles and monks. Monks are revered people in Laos and it is common to see them walking in their orange robes. People consider it an honor to provide assistance or feed them as they go by.

Typical Buddhist wat with the guardians out front

100’s of Buddha statues

We were in that same Buddha cave last year. We hired a boat for the full day $50 USD. Can’t wait to get back to Laos. We’re in Kathmandu now and the rains have hit delaying our trip to Pokhara, landslides and washed out roads. We canceled the bus journey and are flying.